Poll: Canadians Support Stronger role for Canada’s Energy, Natural Resources

CALGARY, AB – A new poll suggests Canadians are ready to see this country’s energy and natural resources play a stronger leadership role in edging out less regulated, less principled supplier nations in the global supply pool.

The new poll conducted by Research Co. for Canada Action on March 14 and 15 questioned 1,000 adults across Canada and found strong support for Canada’s energy, mining and metals, agriculture, and potash sectors in light of this country’s strong environment, health and human rights records.

Key findings of the study include:

• Almost four in five Canadians (78 percent) agree with supporting all Canadian energy, including solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, oil and natural gas;
• Three in four Canadians (75 percent) say Canadian agriculture, with its strong record on health, safety and the environment, should be supported to increase production and should be given preference over suppliers that violate human rights and other sustainability principles;
• Almost three in four Canadians agree Canada’s mining and metals sector, which operates to the highest environmental standards worldwide, should be the preferred global supplier;

“We’re in an uncertain time in which large oil & gas suppliers such as Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela trade in products that just don’t measure up to Canadian values and principles,” Canada Action founder and chief spokesperson Cody Battershill explained.

“We’re a leading global energy supplier – including oil & natural gas, uranium for clean nuclear electricity, and the technology that supports hydro, wind, solar and geothermal. Further, we’re at or near the top of any list of suppliers of mining and metals, agriculture, and potash.

“Canadians are saying these issues are not simply about commerce, but about people; they like the principled approach Canada takes, and they think our country should be preferred over supplier regimes that trade in goods originating out of abuses of environmental, human rights and governance shortfalls,” Battershill said.

Canada Action is a non-partisan, national coalition that advocates for the responsible development of Canada’s various natural resources, for the industries that move that development forward, and for the workers, families, and communities the sector supports.

The poll’s margin of error, which measures sample variability, is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.